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David Campos for assembly, Wendy Aragon for City College board, soda, Muni money and the anti-speculation tax round out a controversial list of election 2014 ENDORSEMENTS. Plus: Yarrr, it's the Treasure Island Music Fest! And a new book collects George Kuchar's shouts and murmurs. Articles Online | Digital Edition

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Honestly, we meticulously avoid the TV, the radio, the mall, the Explorer dealer, and Chili's all year, just so local wiz DJ Earworm's annual mashup of Billboard's top 25 hits will surprise us -- with brilliance. It's the only way we can digest all that auto-syrup in one big candy-colored blast.

One of these days, I'll hop a bus outta this town. Pullin' out of here on the wind, if you want to quote the Boss (sometimes I do). One of the groups I've been keeping my eye on as a possible accomplice is March Fourth Marching Band. You can find the million-piece ensemble's rig parked at nearly every festival, ever – always with a few stilters or trombone players spilling out the door, sprawled on a tarp nearby, or if you're lucky, tapping out a cheerful marching band symphony by a campfire at around five in the morning (hello, High Sierra!)

And onstage! They're like a big, loud circus onstage – until all of a sudden they're off the stage and you're engulfed in 360 degrees of marching band madness, now having a dance party with its frenzied audience. In anticipation of the band's upcoming pre-NYE show at The Independent (Thurs/30), March Fourth's bandleader John Averill sat down at his email portal to tell us all his secrets about where he found the mail order balls needed to make touring with so many moving parts possible. Read more »

“Scott and I wanted to create an adult playground that wasn't just some hedonistic, narcissistic freefall into the apocalypse.” Co-founder Polly Superstar is ready to celebrate a decade of Mission Control's swingin' good times at the play space (which she founded with hubby Baron Scott Levkoff)'s NYE party-ten year anniversary soiree Fri/31.

But first, a look back. “We wanted a place where people could feel safe exploring their sexuality without the rigidity of the BDSM scene, and without the expectation and pressure of the swinger scene.” And so MC's been throughout the aughts: a land where art, sex, and hell yeah, theme parties, have been coming together to the greater glory of SF's freaky, funky pansexual scene. Read more »

Let us begin with the obvious: Mayor Gavin Newsom has absolutely no business deciding who should replace him. His petulant statements suggesting that he will delay taking office as lieutenant governor until the supervisors pick a candidate he likes are an embarrassment to the city. If he actually refuses to take the oath of office Jan. 3, when his term in Sacramento begins, it will damage his reputation and political career.

Newsom knew when he decided to seek higher office that he'd be leaving the city early if he won. He knew that under the City Charter, the Board of Supervisors would choose a new mayor. He knew that a progressive majority on the board was likely to elect someone whose political views differ from his. If he didn't want that to happen, he should have stayed in town and finished his term. Read more »

Read up, absinthe seekers... whether you're intrigued by the (false) claims of hallucinogenic effects or an aficionado taken in by the culture surrounding the green fairy, a little reading will take you deeper. This year has produced three new absinthe books furthering knowledge of an artful drink best enjoyed with leisure and attention.Absinthe Cocktails by Kate SimonRead more »

Note: because this was generally such a crap year, a "best" list seemed too much of a stretch. Ergo this is a Top 20 list, in no particular order, of films I enjoyed most one way or the other (The Killer Inside Me, Everyone Else, and I Spit on Your Grave definitely representing the other). No doubt The King's Speech, The Social Network, and several other currently awards-baiting titles have finer qualities than some here, but they're not what I'd gladly watch again right now.

Nowadays, being up on the news can actually make us stupider (more stupid, damn!), but when cartoonist Arthur Szyk was sketching his dense, fantastically detailed news caricatures, politics were still in need of explication – and all the more better if it was beautiful to boot. How else can one explain why one of the most whimsical artists of the 1930s and '40s became best known for his sketches of Hitler and Stalin playing poker?

Fortaleza is truly a special tequila. On my recent visit to Tequila, Mexico, this distillery enchanted with its agave covered hillsides and haunting caves. Fortaleza means fortitude, though in Mexico, you'll find their bottles labeled Los Abuelos in memory of the grandfathers of Guillermo E. Sauza, the fifth generation producer who passionately runs Fortaleza by old world methods. He comes from tequila royalty as a Sauza... Read more »

As always, we recommend attending several parties on New Year's Eve — just to spread your personal brand of bubbly around (and change up the scenery a bit.) Below are some recommendations for maximum impact, all of which take place the night of Fri/31. Chin chin! (Check out our Music Listings for even more.)

I guess it's no surprise that Gavin Newsom takes his political cues from the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board. But this spoiled-kid choose-a-mayor-I-like-or-I-won't-leave attitude isn't pretty. Newsom has chosen a new office; it's no longer his business who the folks he left behind want to put in Room 200.Read more »